Betrayed by The Exchange

The whole room was as silent as a graveyard save for the loud beatings of Summer's heart, thumping loudly in her chest. Summer's body was frozen, her knees glued to the floor with her eyes fixed on the elder who was about to place the crown on her head.

"Summer, get up on your feet now before I come and pull you up myself!" Alan's voice boomed as he made his way toward Summer. Not only had Alan stormed into the throne room to disrupt the coronation but he had begun to make a scene.

"Do you really think that someone like you would ever become Luna?!" Alan shot at her.

"What.... what is the meaning of this, Alan?" Summer spun her head around with a confused expression on her face to address her future mate.

"What is the meaning of what? Face it, Summer, you're not fit to rule this pack!" Alan spat out at her.

"What is the meaning of this embarrassment, Alan?" Summer sneered. At this point, all eyes had fallen on her, trying to make out the reason why her future husband didn't want her to become the Luna of the pack.

Summer couldn't believe what was happening to her, she tried to believe that it was all a dream that she would soon wake up from but when she discreetly pinched herself, she realized that it wasn't. Beads of sweat had covered her forehead and she was trembling vigorously out of shame. Why had Alan done this?

"I said get up from there, Summer!" Alan yelled out again before going to yank her up to her feet. The look of confusion on her face intensified as she stared at Alan with disbelief.

"We all know what you really are, Summer, I don't even know why I thought someone like you would be my mate...."

"What...what are you talking about?" Summer stuttered heavily as she spoke.

"Don't even try to pretend...and thereby I'm going to use this opportunity to announce who my mate is to everyone.," Alan said with a smirk on his face.

Summer opened her mouth to say something but then hesitated and just let her jaw hang down loosely.

"Come on out here, Davina!" Alan shouted, his hand gestured toward the door but his eyes were fixated on Summer who continued to shiver like a leaf in winter.

The door flung open and Davina, Summer's step-sister, along with some elders made their way into the throne room.

"Come on here my love." Alan smiled genuinely at her.

Summer felt like a hand had gripped her throat and was constricting the airflow from it when Alan kissed Davina passionately on the lips, right in front of her.

"Everyone, this is my mate and the one whom I'll get married to," Alan announced, his hands wrapped in a loving embrace around Davina's waist.

Summer felt her heart sink into her stomach as tears began to form in the corner of her eye.

The so-called elders that had walked in with Davina began to make their way toward her.

"Summer, you are hereby stripped of your position of becoming the Luna of this pack." Their leader spoke up and reached for the crown to take it from the elder who was still holding on to it.

"This coronation will not hold!" He announced and subtle gasps swept from the crowd that had gathered to witness Summer's coronation.

Summer stood her ground and just kept staring at the elder who had retrieved the crown, just a mere betrayal from Alan and an abnormality during her coronation wouldn't be able to kill her spirit.

She didn't want to appear frail in front of the crowd, they were her people and she would still protect them regardless, Luna or not.

"This coronation will not hold because this woman here, who you ignorant fool was about to crown her as Luna is a murderer." The elder said, wagging his index finger at the one who had almost placed the crown on Summer's head.

More gasps flew into the air and soon there was an uproar in the midst of the people. Summer's resolve had begun to dissipate into thin air. It felt as if she had been thrust into a whirlpool of devastation.

"Murder?" Summer couldn't help but let out.

"Do not pretend like you do not know what he is talking about, Summer!" Davina let out to her face.

"You killed your own parents and here you stand to deny it?"

Summer's eyes bulged and her throat suddenly went dry. It still felt like a nightmare to her, a nightmare that she couldn't wake up from no matter how hard she tried.

"This woman who you people would have agreed to be your Luna is a murderer. She killed her own parents and silenced me from speaking the truth." Davina added.

"But now, I had to summon the courage to tell the world about what she had done when I saw that she was about to be crowned the Luna, I wouldn't sit back and watch a murderer rule this pack." Davina let out, poisoning the people's minds against Summer.

Summer's mouth was wide open as the false allegations were laid on her, she was so dazed that she couldn't even deny what was being said and the label on her as her own parent's murderer.

"Hang her, Hang her, Hang her!!" The people had started to scream out. A discreet smile played out on Davina's face as she stepped back. The elder with the crown tried to quiet down the crowd but his efforts were futile as guards had already proceeded to hold Summer down in case she had any plans of escaping.

Summer, who had been paralyzed already by the allegations, gave in to the guards, who had tied her down like a criminal without putting up a fight.

"Hang her, Hang her!!" The people kept on saying, one had even grabbed the opportunity to hit her in the face when another elder stepped in.

"Guards, take her to the dungeon, this evil woman will be hanged!” one elder commanded.